Tom Blasdell (Redmond) is a stock dog trainer, training dogs to herd, cut, and chase cattle for local cattle ranchers. Working mostly with Border collies and Australian shepherds, Blasdell puts his dogs through a two-month training with voice and whistle commands before trying the real work on his sprawling two-thousand head Wagontire Ranch.
Bio
As the morning sun breaks the horizon line, Tom Blasdell arrives at the rendezvous point in a cloud of dust, horse trailer in tow. The Wagontire Ranch is vast, taking in parts of Harney and Lake County in Southeastern Oregon. Blasdell quickly sets to work turning out two of his highly trained stock dogs. The dogs herd, cut, chase, whatever needs doing with the 2,000 head of cattle on the ranch. “A good dog will replace several cowboys,” Blasdell explains. “They work for dry dog food, but they’re there every day. You don’t have to worry about them going to the town and not coming back on Monday morning.” Once the cattle are “dog broke,” he adds, “it’s a lot less stress for them.” Blasdell’s training course lasts two months. Working mostly with Border collies and Australian shepherds, he starts his puppies in a small pen with calves. Blasdell then moves to a larger pen to gain more control and exposure with the dogs. Pasture work follows, then day-to-day work on area ranches. Once their instincts kick in, dogs learn stockmanship much faster than humans. To make up for this deficit, Blasdell offers clinics to teach ranchers how to read their stock and manage their dogs. “We really encourage the owners to come and take some lessons.” During the training process, Blasdell teaches his dogs 15 voice commands as well as whistle commands. Blasdell’s mission in life is to “keep the tradition of dogs helping on the ranch.” As for the next generation, his hope is that his daughter will take up where he leaves off.
